We Lost
by wordhammer
Summary: Following the end of the Deathly Hallows epilogue, everything falls apart. The Golden Trio dies. Time for an unhappy couple to get busy, only it isn't as easy to 'go Dark' as you might think.


Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related concepts are owned by someone who isn't me. I will never seek or accept money for the circulation of this work.

THIS STORY IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION: a real story will soon rise in its place for your viewing pleasure. Thank you for your patience with our mess. The original version of this was posted when I was depressed, but the idea is still fertile. I like writing in movie script style so that's what you get.

**Title**: "We Lost"

**Pairing**: Harry/Hermione

**Summary**: Following the end of the Deathly Hallows epilogue, everything falls apart. The Golden Trio dies. Time for an unhappy couple to get busy, only it isn't as easy to 'go Dark' as you might think.

**Chapter One: Death of the Trio**

Harry and Ron sit at a late lunch drinking together after dropping off their kids for the Hogwart's Express (basically, we start three hours after the Epilogue ends.)

**Harry**: "_Tell me what's on your mind, Ron._"

**Ron**: "Harry, mate, I should never have married her."

**Harry**: "What? I thought you and Hermione were doing well. You've had two kids and you both have careers. What's the problem?

**Ron**: "'Mione don't take care of herself. Her hair has just gotten out of control. And after two kids? The backside is gettin' droopy. It wouldn't be so bad if she could cook but Miss 'O-in-her-Potions NEWT' could burn water. I just don't know what I was thinking, y'know?"

**Harry**: "Uhhh... huh."

**Ron**: "And she's laid down the law on the kids. No more! It's not that I wanted more, but she won't ... do it for no reason. For once, I'm glad we did things muggle-style."

**Harry**: "How's that?"

**Ron**: "Our wedding. Hermione insisted on a Anglican Church wedding, so there was no hand-fasting, no bond of magic. As far as the Ministry is concerned, she's just a Muggleborn who had kids out of wedlock with me. It's why no one made a stink when she chose to keep calling herself Granger. There's just one thing I can't decide."

**Harry**: "What's that?"

**Ron**: "Should I keep the kids? I mean, they're alright, bright and everything, but if I'm going to make a break, maybe it would be better if it were clean, complete, y'know? It'd make finding a proper wife easier to not have to explain all the baggage."

**Harry**: "Right."

**Ron**: "Harry, are you alright, mate? I've been pouring my heart out here and you've barely said ten words. What's going on with you?"

**Harry**: "Ron, you've been poisoned. That's why you're confessing all this stuff."

**Ron**: "P-poisoned? I thought I felt a bit peculiar."

**Harry**: "Yeah. The real corker is, I poisoned you."

**Ron**: "Yuh...Y-you w-what?"

**Harry**: "Ron, Hermione is dead. The reason we're sitting here sipping firewhiskey at a three hour lunch is that neither of us is permitted to do the investigation. It was a suicide, Ron. Hermione killed herself."

**Ron**: "Th-that's immmmmmpossibah..."

**Harry**: "Yeah, you're really starting to feel it now. Hermione left a note, Ron. Do you know what it said?"

**Ron**: "H-hate Ron?"

**Harry**: "Even now, it's all about you. No, Ron. It said 'We lost.' That's it. I decided to find out why she would think that, so I skimmed your mind while we were eating. That's why I poisoned you."

**Ron**: "Bcuz... bcuz... Riddle's alive?"

**Harry**: "No, I poisoned you because you're a right bastard. You've already been sleeping around on her, in fact you have a filly or two just waiting in the wings to become the next Mrs. Ron-the-Hero Weasley. It's cruel."

**Ron**: "Feckin'...bastd...shudda...duelled..."

**Harry**: "Ron, I've been poisoned, too."

**Ron**: "Whaaa....?"

**Harry**: "I took the poison, too. It's a Malfoy formula. We'll both die, Draco will be implicated, and Ginny will be saddled with raising all our kids. It's her nightmare- becoming 'just' a mother of many with no one to help."

**Ron**: "F-fortune?"  
**Harry**: "It's gone. Pureblood supremecy marches on- they swindled it all. Why do you think I keep working? I'd rather spend time with the children, but we needed the money."

Ron starts crying.

**Harry**: "Yeh, Ron. Face death like a... like... a... Gryff..."

Both men slump to the table. They aren't disturbed for another hour as rumours about Harry's personal wards keep wary citizens at a distance.

The Daily Prophet releases a very rushed special edition with articles documenting the horror of the sudden death of the Golden Trio. Hermione's death is ruled an unsolved murder, given that all three deaths occurred within hours of each other.

Except...

Harry awakes in the DMLE morgue. He uses all his Auror skills to set up the scene to look like obsessed-fan body snatching, and then escapes using Polyjuice to appear as a short dumpy lab assistant. One stop in the Morgue locker to retrieve his Invisibility Cloak and he disappears.

Harry apparates to Hogmeade and sneaks onto the grounds of Hogwarts through the secret passage under the Whomping Willow. Using all his stealth, he approaches the Tomb of Albus Dumbledore. Pushing aside the marble stone, Harry retrieves the Elder Wand and with a flick creates a duplicate he leaves in its place. Sealing the Tomb once more, Harry steals his way back into the Forbidden Forest. Walking for a ways, Harry stops in a clearing and raises the Wand.

**Harry**: "_Accio Gaunt's Ring!_"

Minutes later a small gold object with a dull black stone zips into his hand. Turning the ring in his hand three times, Harry looks up to see a shimmering grey figure form in front of him. Hermione Granger appears, weeping and tearing at her clothes.

**Hermione**: "Who calls to me from the Shadowed Lands?"

**Harry**: "Hermione, it's me. Enough with the Wuthering Heights or whatever."

**Hermione**: "Harry? That makes sense. My crimes are mostly against you, so..."

**Harry**: "What crimes? You were married to an arse who was two-timing you. The same arse who we've both forgiven way too many times for what he ever offered us. Is that why you killed yourself?"

**Hermione**: "I... I couldn't think anymore. I couldn't breathe. I was choking and no one..."

**Harry**: "Hermione, skip the poetry and angst. What was the straw that broke you?"

**Hermione**: "I was looking at our children, our futures and I realised I didn't have one."

**Harry**: "That's a bit more specific, but why 'our children'?"

**Hermione**: "Harry, Rose is your daughter, not Ron's."

Harry stands mute with an expression of distant annoyance.

**Hermione**: "I don't know why I said that just now! I never wanted you to know that!"

**Harry**: "You're dead and I'm me. You have to tell me the truth. Lying takes creativity, which you no longer have. That said, how is it that you and I have a daughter when we've... never..."

**Hermione**: "Oh, Harry you have to understand..."

**Harry**: "That must have been some pretty awful sex for you to Obliviate me."

**Hermione**: "Oh no! You were just as excellent as I could have dreamed!"

**Harry**: "I meant your performance. If I was bad, you'd want to Obliviate yourself. Why then?"

**Hermione**: "When it was done you were very upset, feeling you had betrayed Ginny and Ron and yourself all in one moment of unrestrained passion..."

**Harry**: "Didn't I say you should stop with the poetry?"

**Hermione**: "It's a direct quote, you arse!"

**Harry**: "Oh. Yeah, I suppose I was a bit more hopeful 13 years ago."

**Hermione**: "We all were."

**Harry**: "And Hugo?"

**Hermione**: "Well, he's not Ron's. I think Ron is sterile from the brains that attacked him in the Department of Mysteries. You reacted so badly the one time we made love that I Obliviated the encounter, so the only clue you got that Rose was yours is the name. Hugo... was a reference to Victor Hugo."

**Harry**: "Hugo is Krum's? You haven't seen him in two decades."

**Hermione**: "No. That would have been easier. Have you read Les Miserables?"

**Harry**: "Hmm. Unjustly accused man spends time in prison, pursued by maniacal lawman when he escapes as he redeems his life and that of several other people. He builds a false identity as a factory owner, but is forced to flee when he adopts the daughter of a woman dying of the syphillis she caught working as a prostitute. She was forced into prostitution when she was fired from his factory for having a child out of wedlock in the first place, so it was sort of his fault she died and the daughter was orphaned. The daughter grows up in his care to fall in love with a revolutionary that the man doesn't like, but he saves the boy's life anyway so his daughter can be happy. He dies from wounds taken during their escape from an uprising."

**Hermione**: "You read it!"

**Harry**: "Saw the musical. How does this explain your son?"

**Hermione**: "I'm Fantine. Hugo is Cosette. You're...Javert."

**Harry**: "So Hugo's father, rather than being an unnamed bastard who impregnates a girl and wanders off would be my mortal enemy. Draco?"

Hermione nods, crying again.

**Harry**: "We really did lose, didn't we?"

Hermione continues to nod and cry.

**Harry**: "Hermione. I'm tired of this. Tired of losing. Tired of playing the hero."

**Hermione**: "Do NOT kill yourself. I can speak with authority when I say the pain doesn't end there."

**Harry**: "I know, I've spoken to a few ghosts in my time. I wish you could have brought this to me while alive."

**Hermione**: "Harry, I can't believe how muddled my head has been! Death is quite clarifying."

**Harry**: "No it isn't. You have no body now, so you're free of the effects of a dozen magical mind-fucks. I scoped Ron's mind as he was dying. You have been dosed with Amortentia, Imperio'd, Compulsed, Confunded and bound by oaths and vows that stole most of your will. It's a tribute to the power of your beautiful mind that you could swim against that bilge well enough to walk to King's Cross station. I didn't say 'you should've', I said 'I wish you COULD have'."

**Hermione**: "T-THAT...B-B-B-BASTARD!"

**Harry**: "Yeah, and I notice he's not floating around anywhere- he knows his death was earned."

**Hermione**: "I can't cry enough. I can't take revenge. I can't be held by you. This is Hell. Harry, why did you summon me? I know I've let you down, but surely knowing all this was affecting me you can't have wanted to torture me for it. Why?"

**Harry**: "Hermione, Death and I have a special arrangement. We stay away from each other, and I hasten the end of the unjust. That's not you. I can bring you back, but I'll only do it if you want to help me make something truly transformative happen and are willing to give up on your morals to do it."

**Hermione**: "And why must we abandon our morals, Mr. Potter?"

**Harry**: "First of all you committed suicide, so the Church would say you're damned anyway."

**Hermione**: "That... only closes a door. From what you said, my soul is still unclaimed. And aren't you risking worse? You knew you wouldn't die from the poison, so you haven't committed suicide..."

**Harry**: "I already moved past that when I murdered Ron yesterday. Anyway, damned or not we will be making harder choices than we're used to."

**Hermione**: "Like what? Honestly, Harry! How much farther can we go and still do any good? Hang on..."

**Harry**: "Well, to start with I need to get you a body without a soul in it, so we need to feed someone to a Dementor. Preferably someone you'd like to live as for the next century."

**Hermione**: "I get it now. Daphne Greengrass. "

**Harry**: "Well, that took no time!"

**Hermione**: "It gives us access to the Malfoys as her sister married Draco; also she's not married and is wealthy and eccentric. You're planning for us to destroy Wizarding culture. We'll need inroads."

**Harry**: "Are you sure?"

**Hermione**: "Yes. Harry, will you... love me, again?"

**Harry**: "Hermione, I never stopped."

**Hermione**: "That's not what I meant, will you... wait, what?"

**Harry**: "I have always loved you. The Weasleys' potions couldn't take that from me. I just thought you were happy with Ron, so I left you alone to be happy."

**Hermione**: "Oh. I'm really hoping we both become much smarter over the next year, or this will never work. I love you, too. I... didn't think you would want me with prettier girls like Cho and Ginny chasing after you. When we had sex, you were so beside yourself afterwards..."

**Harry**: "I can't speak to how I was feeling then, since you Obliviated me. I'd like to remember it this time; consider it a requirement. Would you care to explain how Draco became Hugo's father?"

**Hermione**: "I... I wanted to get back at him, at Ron. Somehow I knew things weren't right, but now that I can see it clearly, I realise I had too many restrictions on my behavior. Ron couldn't force me to only love him, but after we had sex behind his back he found out somehow and Compelled me to not accept sexual contact from a half-blood, muggleborn or muggle, which unfortunately also included myself. Somehow Draco found out and he cornered me in the Ministry records office. It had been... sooooo long since I had felt anything and he was, well he was quiet about it and he did me from behind so I could imagine it being someone else..."

**Harry**: "Yeah, I got it Hermione. Now that I know, we'll just never discuss it again, alright?"

**Hermione**: "Right. We need to get me a body. I think talking about this will only frustrate you."

**Harry**: "There's the brilliant woman I love and trust!"

**Hermione**: "And you're all right with Daphne?"

**Harry**: "I think I have some of your hairs still left in my secure box in Gringott's. We can make love as we should have. After that, I would be willing to pound supermodel Daphne's body through several hours of orgasms for you."

**Hermione**: "Save the sweet talk for when I have a body, Harry. Right now, it just seems rude."

Harry turns and starts walking into the forest, followed by Hermione.

**Harry**: "Hermione?"

**Hermione**: "Yes, Harry?"

**Harry**: "I really like this plan."

**Hermione**: "Harry, I'm curious..."

**Harry**: (mumbles) "That's hardly new."

**Hermione**: "Why didn't Cadmus Peverell do what we're going to do?"

**Harry**: "Ah. Well, Cadmus was the first Dementor. Sort of a chicken and egg problem."

**Hermione**: "So when you die, you'll become a Dementor?"

**Harry**: "Only if I incorrectly sacrifice my soul to give my body to my dead lover. I have a much better plan."

**Hermione**: "Aren't you afraid of how you will be judged?"

Harry stops trudging forward to turn and look at his ghostly friend.

**Harry**: "Hermione, I've lived through Hell, several times over. I have killed men, women and children. I'm planning on doing much more. If my sacrificing eternity to fight the war we should have fought will finally rid this society of it's parasites, I say let's eat some babies."

**Hermione**: "Again, sweet talking won't make me horny. I'm a ghost."

**Harry**: "You asked."

**Hermione**: "Harry?"

**Harry**: "Yes, Hermione?"

**Hermione**: "I really like this plan, too."

**Harry**: "Can you apparate or something? I don't feel like walking to London and we need to see the goblins."

**Hermione**: "Just go. I believe I'll be wherever you need me to be because you've summoned me."

**Harry**: "Brilliant."


End file.
